The purpose of me setting up this blog is to keep track on the progress of Beijing 2008. I am personally very fascinated by the architecture of the Beijing 2008 Games.
Just a personal opinion, I think the buildings are way cool! They will rank among the best stadiums ever built in the world.
Hopefully, this will become a historical archive of the event. That's if I don't get lazy ;)

Friday, October 20, 2006

The Chinese really know how to make money!

The official mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, previously named "The Five Friendlies", were renamed "Fuwa" on October 9 causing Fuwa-related email addresses and domains to go on sale at Taobao.com for high prices.

According to a Shaanxi local newspaper, Hua Shang Chen Bao, a reseller "xiyanyan" was the owner of most of the domains. He successfully sold a domain, chinafuwa.com, for RMB 80,000 (USD 10,000), but was said to regret not holding out for a higher price.

However, according to Hua Shang Chen Bao and Beijing Times, China's network information center CNNIC and the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) had differing views on the matter.

CNNIC said in October that the domain registration rule was "whoever applies first wins" and that domain names can be traded freely.

But according to Beijing Times, BOCOG said the transactions violated the Regulations on the Protection of the Olympic Logo, which was issued by the Trademark Office of the State Administration For Industry & Commerce, responsible for the registration and administration of trademarks.

Beijing Times reported that Taobao.com didn't prohibit the domain auction activities because CNNIC allowed domain transactions. However, after they contacted the BOCOG, Taobao decided to delete the related webpages after 6 p.m., October 17.

Beijing Times said "xiyanyan" registered these domains one year ago. After October 15, 2006, he began to receive more and more inquiries, and over ten phone calls a day.

On the afternoon of October 16, "xiyanyan" suddenly suspended the sales of these domains, saying he would wait until the price went up to a higher level. As a result, chinafuwa.net, china-fuwa.com, and fuwachina.com temporarily disappeared from Taobao.

The owner of fuwa-beijing2008.com, who is from Quanzhou, Fujian province, is asking for RMB 500,000 (USD 62,500) for the domain. And fuwa.bj2008@gmail.com is the most valuable email address with the owner asking RMB 2,000 (USD 250).

Before the "Five Friendlies" were renamed, fivefriendlies.com was also waiting for buyers. "